Lip Filler Aftercare and Swelling, Day by Day: The First Two Weeks

Good lip filler aftercare is simple. Don’t touch your lips at first, avoid strenuous exercise, heat and public pools for 48 hours, and keep makeup away from the injection points until the following day.

Perfectus Derma Aesthetics is a nurse-led clinic inside UNTIL Soho, 111 Charing Cross Road, London. Co-founder Terry Robson, a Registered Nurse and Independent Prescriber, has sat in on many of the lip treatments carried out by Aesthetic Nurse Practitioner Arek Bulanda. This guide shares what he has seen across those patients.

What does lip filler swelling look like, day by day?

In Perfectus Derma’s experience, lip filler swelling usually lasts 5 to 7 days, eases by days 7 to 9 and has usually settled by day 14. Swelling and bruising vary from person to person, so treat the table below as a guide.

Days after treatment	What our nurses usually see
The day and the next few days	Swelling, tenderness and sometimes bruising. Some people swell straight away, others don’t.
Days 5 and 6	The swelling has started to go down.
Days 7 to 9	The swelling is significantly reducing and the bruising is reducing.
Day 14	Your lips have usually completely settled.

Interestingly, some patients actually prefer the fuller appearance of their lips around days 5 and 6, when some swelling remains. Then, when it goes down further by days 7, 8 and 9, they become a little bit disappointed. As Terry puts it, they’re like, “Oh, I kind of missed the swelling.”

Swelling and bruising are discussed during the consultation and again after the treatment, because those are the two main things that people are worried about.

What is normal in the first two weeks after lip filler?

Perfectus Derma sees normal swelling vary considerably from patient to patient, so there isn’t really one particular day when it looks its worst. Some patients have an immediate swelling response, and others don’t. Some bruise much more easily than others, and some people don’t bruise at all.

It can depend on the patient’s anatomy and their individual response to the treatment. Some people are more sensitive than others and bruise a lot more or swell a lot more than other patients.

How much product has been used plays a part as well. So does where it’s been placed, and whether the practitioner has used a cannula or a needle to place the product.

Not all lips are the same, so Perfectus Derma doesn’t use exactly the same technique for every patient. Different lip shapes and anatomies need different approaches. So Perfectus Derma prepares patients for a range of normal swelling and bruising, instead of telling them they’ll look a particular way on a particular day.

Swelling and bruising are common with lip filler in general. A 2021 review of lip filler studies, covering 1,496 people, found swelling in about three in four and bruising in about two in five. These settled without treatment.

When is lip filler swelling a reason to call the clinic?

Call Perfectus Derma if swelling comes with significant pain in one area, with spots or blisters on the lip, or with a change in skin colour. These can be warning signs of a vascular occlusion.

A vascular occlusion is where the blood supply to an area of the lip gets blocked and the tissue starts to starve of blood.

Our nurses explain the difference between the normal swelling, tenderness and bruising we’d expect and these red flag symptoms. The warning signs we want patients to be aware of include:

• increased pain, usually significant pain localised to a particular area
• bruising in that same painful area
• pustules (small pus-filled spots) or vesicles (small blisters) on the lip
• Unusual changes in skin colour, including pale, white, dusky or mottled areas.

A UK guideline from the Aesthetic Complications Expert Group notes that a dusky purple patch can look like a bruise. If you’re unsure which it is, message us a photo.

If you notice any of these symptoms, contact the clinic immediately. Do not wait for several symptoms to appear.

Any changes in vision following filler treatment require immediate emergency medical attention. Call our dedicated SOS emergency number if any issues occur.

Vascular occlusion is usually picked up during the treatment or soon after it, but it can develop later. So every patient needs to know the signs before they go home.

Perfectus Derma makes it very clear to patients that the clinic is available if they’re worried about anything. They can ring us, message, send us photos, and if necessary we’ll bring them back into clinic for a review.

What should you avoid after lip filler?

Perfectus Derma asks patients to avoid touching their lips at first, and to avoid strenuous exercise and excessive heat for 48 hours.

There’s so much information online that patients can become confused about what they should and shouldn’t do. Perfectus Derma gets questions about exercise, heat, makeup, touching their lips, using straws, smoking and kissing, even eating.

So we try to keep our advice very simple:

• Don’t touch your lips. Avoid unnecessarily touching or rubbing or putting pressure on the treated areas, because it’s going to irritate them and cause pain and more swelling, and potentially cross-infection with bacteria.
• Avoid strenuous exercise and excessive heat for 48 hours. That includes things like saunas and swimming in public pools, because of the bacterial infection risk.
• Don’t apply makeup over the injection points until the following day. Sometimes you need to wait a little longer, because the lips are very sensitive.

Our lip filler page also advises avoiding alcohol and very hot drinks for 24 hours.

What lip filler aftercare does Perfectus Derma give?

Every lip filler patient at Perfectus Derma leaves with a full aftercare talk. We talk to them thoroughly about what they can expect over the next few days, including swelling, tenderness and bruising.

Perfectus Derma also emails every patient an aftercare instruction leaflet, which goes into their inbox at the end of their treatment. We know people don’t always retain everything that they’re being told during an appointment, particularly when they’ve just had a treatment.

Having the written information to refer back to at home, rather than relying on conflicting online advice or trying to remember what we said, has proved very beneficial.

What happens when a patient is worried after lip filler?

Recently, a first-time lip filler patient contacted Perfectus Derma around 24 hours after treatment. She had some pain around one of the injection sites and a small bruise. She sent us a message and several photos, and Arek asked her some questions and then spoke to her on the phone.

In what she was describing to Arek and what we could see in the photos, there wasn’t anything immediately concerning for a complication such as a vascular occlusion. However, she was also saying she thought that she could feel a lump, so she was understandably anxious. The telephone conversation hadn’t completely reassured her.

So we asked her to come back into clinic, and Arek assessed her in person.

Everything was reassuring during the assessment and consistent with post-injection discomfort and a small amount of bruising. There was no evidence of vascular occlusion. The small lumps she felt had dispersed by the time she got to us, as we had told her they would.

We advised simple pain relief such as over-the-counter paracetamol, which she hadn’t taken because she hadn’t read the aftercare advice. She forgot about the email we had sent and couldn’t remember everything we discussed after the treatment, and that was adding to her anxiety.

So for us, bringing her back into clinic was absolutely the right thing to do, and we’d much rather see someone and reassure them than have them worrying at home.

Giving patients information to go home with helps. But sometimes you need to bring them back for that extra reassurance, which was the case for this patient.

Can you add more lip filler while your lips are still swollen?

Perfectus Derma waits for the swelling to settle before adding more product, because what you see straight after treatment isn’t necessarily the final result.

For example, if someone’s very swollen but only a small amount of product’s been used, we explain that there is room to put more product in. But we need to wait to see how the swelling settles, and then we go from there.

Adding more product when you’re very swollen will not be beneficial, and can potentially distort the lip shape or make the lips look too full.

When will your lips look settled after filler?

At Perfectus Derma, the time to judge the result is once your lips have fully settled. Until then, expect swelling that changes day by day, follow the aftercare advice, and contact the clinic about anything that worries you.

See how we plan natural-looking lip filler in Soho, and meet the nurses who will look after you. It also helps to know what happens at a consultation.

Frequently asked questions

How long does lip filler swelling last?

At Perfectus Derma, lips may be swollen on the day and for the next few days, usually 5 to 7 days in all. By days 7 to 9 the swelling and bruising are usually reducing significantly, and by day 14 the lips have usually settled. The amount varies from person to person.

What should you not do after lip filler?

Perfectus Derma advises not touching, rubbing or pressing on your lips at first. For 48 hours, avoid strenuous exercise, saunas and other excessive heat, and public pools. Keep makeup away from the injection points until the following day, and avoid alcohol and very hot drinks for 24 hours.

Can lip filler be topped up while the lips are still swollen?

Perfectus Derma waits for the swelling to settle before adding more. If only a small amount of product was used, there may be room for more, but adding filler to very swollen lips can distort the lip shape or make the lips look too full.

When should you contact the clinic after lip filler?

Contact Perfectus Derma straight away if you notice significant pain in one area, bruising in that painful area, small spots or blisters, or pale, white, dusky or mottled skin. These can be warning signs of a vascular occlusion, so don't wait for several to appear. Any change in vision needs immediate emergency medical attention.